Roku gets Smart (TV)

Anthony Wood broke the news late Sunday prior to the CES show that Roku has decided to take another route to win the war for controlling your TV, soon Roku will be integrated into your new smartTV. Partnering with TCL and Hisense, the company plans to release the Roku TV later this year. This is a bold move from a company that has already positioned themselves as the leader in the OTT world. The field however is becoming crowded with existing and new entries all over at the 2014 CES show. This new strategy if carried out correctly could be the beginning of an entirely new era for connected TV's.
 MORE: Roku Blog - 01/05/14 Introducing Roku TV or WIRED - 01/06/14 Roku TV Is the First Smart TV Worth Using or

ABC.com limits access to New Episodes

In a definite sign of things to come, ABC announced that next-day access to new episodes of ABC shows will be restricted to authenticated cable subscribers on participating pay-TV services and Hulu Plus subscribers starting Monday, January 6, according to the net's web site. (ABC owner Disney co-owns Hulu.) Access will be free to everyone eight days after the initial air date. Fox instituted a similar delay in 2011.

TV Everywhere Viewing takes off

New data available from FreeWheel finally quanitifies the fact that TV Everywhere is finally real.  Since the inception of the concept, critics could confidently claim that the authentication of subscribers on non-TV devices was failing to materialize, however, in the past 12 months authenticated video viewing grew 217% and comprises an impressive 14% of all ad views on long-form content.

Brian Dutt, manager of advisory services at FreeWheel stated “Over time, we expect that this will drive increased monetization of half-hour and hour-long TV programs (as well as live streams) across all screens.  Late this year, the industry also achieved a 1:1 ratio between ad views and video views which, according to Dutt, indicates that monetization is finally catching up with viewing behavior.  Dutt beleive that all of this is proving that programmers are finally figuring out how to bring TV experiences to viewers across all devices while monetizing it at the same time. As such, the content mix is continuing to evolve with long-form growing most quickly (56%), led by scripted drama and sports. More: 12/03/13 FierceOnline Video - TV Everywhere ad viewing spikes 9 percentage points between Q4 2012 and Q3 2013 - FierceOnlineVideo or Download FreeWheel's Video Monetization Q3 2013 Report

TiVo - To Roam or not to Roam

The DVR pioneers at TiVo are back with the recent launch of a new line of devices that promise closer integration of streaming services and personal recordings. Their cool new trick; out-of-home (OOH) streaming of both live and recorded shows, with the ability to download shows to to smartphones and tablets from anywhere. The company says that the new Roamio line combines the functionality of a DVR, Apple TV, Roku and Slingbox and even with all of those devices in a user’s entertainment centre; they still wouldn’t have access to everything a Roamio can do for them. It says that while doing what other cable set-top-boxes don’t do: combine all the best of linear TV with all the best over-the-top content, TV lovers now have the ability to roam free and both control and consume from out of the home through a mobile device. According to Colin Dixon, chief analyst and Founder of nScreenMedia, "The TiVo Roamio has reset the bar for what a DVR can do by making all that functionality and content available anywhere will allow users to get more value from the content they already pay for.” For now, the connectivity only works with iOS devices but the company has plans to roll out to Android sometime next year.

 

Now I'll admit that I've always have a soft spot in my heart for TiVo because truly, their early product was literally years ahead of it's time but now I must question.... is it enough to keep the company relevant? I guess only time will tell. As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.